Virginia

Your Vote's Safety in Virginia

Voter Laws and Registration Deadlines

Be a resident of Virginia and of the precinct in which you want to vote

Be 18 years old by the next election

Not have been convicted of a felony, or have had your civil rights restored

Not currently be declared mentally incompetent by a court of law

STRICT PHOTO ID REQUIRED — Voters must present government-issued photo ID at the polls or other ID, including Social Security, government, private employer or university ID cards, or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, or paycheck that shows the name and address of the voter. Voters without photo ID may cast provisional ballots that would not be counted unless voter provides photo ID or non-photo ID — such as a college ID, utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck, voter registration card, Social Security card or private workplace ID — by noon Friday following a Tuesday election.

Gov. Bob McDonnell signed laws in March 2013 requiring photo IDs for voters in elections beginning July 1, 2014, eliminating non-photo IDs, and harmonizing ID requirements for state and federal elections. The State Board of Elections is required to provide free photo IDs for voting purposes. Accepted forms of ID under the new laws include a Virginia driver's license, a U.S. passport or any other photo ID issued by the United States, Virginia or one of its political subdivisions, a student ID issued by any institute of higher learning in Virginia or any employee identification card.

For persons who registered to vote in Virginia by mail, federal law requires them to show ID when voting (in-person or absentee) for the first time in a federal election if they did not send a copy of one of these IDs with their voter registration applications. Voters subject to this special ID requirement will have the phrase "First-time Federal" after the "ID Required" item in their on-line voter registration record.

Court Activity

News & Commentary

Democrats Sue over Virginia Voter ID Law | 06/16/15

Virginia Democrats filed a lawsuit on June 11 challenging the state's voter ID law, joining an effort backed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to overturn voting rules in several swing states ahead of the 2016 elections.

The Democratic Party of Virginia said in the lawsuit that the photo ID requirement, which was approved by the Republican-run legislature, would make it difficult for residents to vote.

"The commonwealth voted strongly to support Democrats in recent national elections. After Republicans determined they couldn't change the minds of the electorate, they decided to change the makeup of the electorate instead by making it more difficult for Virginians to exercise their right to vote," Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said in a statement.

Similar arguments have been raised in lawsuits challenging GOP-backed voter ID laws in presidential battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin.

Opponents of voter ID laws claim they disproportionally stops blacks, Hispanics and poor Americans from voting. Proponents argue that the laws are a safeguard against voter fraud. But there has been scant evidence of either widespread voter fraud or that the laws cause widespread problems with access to voting.

"This is another politically-motivated lawsuit funded by George Soros and out of state interest groups who are seeking to manipulate the court system in order to benefit the Democratic Party," said Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell.

Mr. Soros has pledged to spend as much as $5 million trying to overturn voter ID laws and other election rules ahead of next year's elections.

44,000 Registered in Both Md. and Va., Group Finds | 04/25/14

A crosscheck of voter rolls in Virginia and Maryland turned up 44,000 people registered in both states, a vote-integrity group reported on April 23.

"The Virginia Voters Alliance is investigating how to identify voters who are registered and vote in Virginia but live in the states that surround us," Alliance President Reagan George told the State Board of Elections.

George acknowledged that the number of voters who actually cast multiple ballots is relatively small. In the case of Maryland and Virginia, he revealed that 164 people voted in both states during the 2012 election.

But George said his group will expand their search for duplicate voters in the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Georgia.

Virginia County Registrar Threatened with Lawsuits over Refusal to Clean Up Voter Rolls | 11/21/13

CHESTERFIELD (WRIC) - Chesterfield County Registrar Larry Haake is in a legal battle after refusing to purge thousands of voter names. Before this year's election, he and other registrars were told to erase the names of people who weren't legally allowed to vote in Virginia.

The Chesterfield County Registrar refused until after the election, claiming the list was full of errors.

Two groups -- the American Civil Rights Union and True the Vote -- are now threatening legal action, and demanding that he clean up the rolls.

Once again, a liberal at MSNBC has chosen to rewrite history by pretending that Republicans are the political party with a history of denying minorities the right to vote. Appearing on her daily MSNBC show, liberal co-host Krystal Ball went on a tirade against Republicans in Virginia claiming they are the "rightful heir to the Jim Crow legacy."

ACRU Warns Virginia County to Clean Up Voter Rolls | 10/23/13

The American Civil Rights Union announced October 22 that a letter was sent to Chesterfield County, Virginia officials requesting that ACRU attorneys be allowed to inspect county voting registration records before the November statewide election.

Dems Fight Clean-Up of Virginia's Voter Rolls | 10/16/13

Election officials across Virginia are grappling with how to follow through with a directive from the State Board of Elections to purge up to 57,000 registered voters from the state rolls -- a move that has prompted a lawsuit from the Democratic Party of Virginia and outright defiance by at least one registrar.

Holder: Feds Will Sue over Voter ID, but Not over Weed | 09/04/13

Mississippi columnist Sid Salter: Seems U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is fully prepared to sue Southern states over Voter ID laws, but is not willing to sue Colorado and Washington in their efforts to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana.

Holder's logic is apparently that while states should have lots of leeway on how they deal with enforcement of federal laws against smoking and selling weed, states should not have that same leeway when it comes to efforts to fight perceived voter fraud.

Editorial: Securing the Ballot | 04/01/13

Nothing is quite so implausible as a Democrat claiming he's against something because it's "too expensive." Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe says he vetoed a prospective law requiring voters to show identification before casting a ballot because
it would cost $300,000.

Nearly three dozen other states are still solvent after adopting similar voter-ID
laws. On Tuesday, Virginia became the latest, with Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell's signature on a voter-ID bill that takes effect in November 2014.

Governor Signs Virginia Photo ID Law | 03/27/13

RICHMOND - Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed legislation into law that will require voters to carry photo identification with them to the polls, starting next year in Virginia. Democrats decried the action as a Jim Crow-era tactic to suppress the votes of the elderly, minorities and the underprivileged. Republicans cheered the new law as a check on potential vote fraud.

Virginia Senate Committee Approves Tighter Voter ID Law | 01/21/13

Vote Fraud Alleged in Key States | 11/12/12

Vote fraud has been alleged in key states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, and Florida where in St. Lucie County, the unofficial vote count showed 175,554 registered voters but 247,713 vote cards were cast.

Rep. Moran's Son Resigns after Tape Is Revealed | 10/25/12

New O'Keefe Video Catches Congressman's Son | 10/25/12

James O'Keefe of Project Veritas catches Patrick Moran, son of U.S. Rep. James Moran (D-VA) on tape discussing ways to commit vote fraud. On Wednesday, Mr. Moran resigned as field director for his father's campaign.

10,000 Dead People Found on Virginia Voter Rolls -- So Far | 08/10/12

RICHMOND -- The State Board of Elections has identified 10,000 dead individuals on the Virginia voter rolls. Local registrars will now begin removing the names from the rolls, but the finding is likely the tip of the iceberg. Only 15 million of the 60 million records in the Social Security death master file have been matched against the state's voter list thus far.

But then he sided with Virginia, and ordered Virginia's election to proceed with only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul on the ballot.

To make it on the primary ballot, Virginia law requires a candidate to submit 10,000 signatures of Virginia voters who attest they plan on voting in the primary, at least 400 of which must be from each congressional district. Signature petitions can only be circulated by Virginia citizens who are eligible to vote.

Voter ID Terrifies Democrats | 12/30/11

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published December 30, 2011 inThe Washington Times.

The most consequential election in our lifetime is still 10 months away, but it's clear from the Obama administration's order halting South Carolina's new photo ID law that the Democrats already have brought a gun to a knife fight.

How else to describe this naked assault on the right of a state to create minimal requirements to curb vote fraud?

On Dec. 23, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez sent a letter ordering South Carolina to stop enforcing its photo ID law. Mr. Perez, who heads the Civil Rights Division that booted charges against the New Black Panther Party for intimidating voters in Philadelphia in 2008, said South Carolina's law would disenfranchise thousands of minority voters.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson rejected Mr. Perez's math and explained on Fox News why the law is necessary. The state Department of Motor Vehicles audited a state Election Commission report that said 239,333 people were registered to vote but had no photo ID. The DMV found that 37,000 were deceased, more than 90,000 had moved to other states, and others had names not matched to IDs. That left only 27,000 people registered without a photo ID but who could vote by signing an affidavit as to their identity.

Election Message: Get Involved or Get Left Out | 11/11/11

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published November 11, 2011 onThe Washington Timeswebsite.

Tuesday's off-year elections revealed a truth well known in sports that also applies to politics: The side that's more energized wins. In Virginia, an energized Republican Party apparently gained a tie in the Senate, giving the GOP control of all three branches - governor, House and Senate - for the first time since Reconstruction. A recount could reverse it, but right now, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling's Senate vote would be the 20-20 tie breaker. This was no small feat, given the gerrymandering by the last Democratic majority.

In Loudoun County, all nine supervisor posts went to the GOP. Even the liberal Democrat School Board chairman who thinks children should read homosexual penguin books lost his seat.

Dick Black, a former House delegate and prominent social conservative, trounced his Democratic opponent for a new state Senate seat despite being vilified by a local newspaper and The Washington Post in articles so biased that the reporters must have typed them only with their left hands. Seriously. They read like hit pieces from Mr. Black's opponent's campaign mailers.

Overall, it was a slam dunk for the GOP in the Old Dominion. Virginia has a vibrant Tea Party movement, a charismatic governor and a motivated base. The election results also reflected public rejection of the Obama administration's disastrous economic and regulatory policies.